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Spiderman: No Way Home - Spoiler-Free Review

Those that know me well, will know that I'm into comics. Maybe not as much as I used to be, I've always loved Marvel comics specifically, and Spiderman is my guy. I used to read as many different iterations as I could from Spectacular Spiderman, Amazing Spiderman, Web of Spiderman, Ultimate, the list goes on and on. Like most of us, I needed to know where the story goes now that Mysterio was killed and made public Spidey as Peter Parker. I will not spoil anything from the movie that was not already presented in a trailer of some-sort. If you haven't even seen a trailer, well, then maybe stop here. 

Let's get my initial impression out of the way. Yes, I loved it. Past Spiderman movies have done multiple villains and failed miserably, but this one does a pretty good job of giving each of them their own respective screen time and a real reason to be there. There's lots of action and, surprisingly to me, lots of emotion. I cried three times just as an example (Yeah I'm a wimp, but I'm ok with that). The viewer really gets a fleshed-out version of Peter and M.J's relationship, which was surprising and refreshing. Past movies have always semi-sidelined the romance for the action. This movie hit a delicate divide of time between plot, drama and action.

Image by Digitalspy.com

Now, that's not to say it doesn't have issues. The first hour of the movie, although great, feels almost disjointed from the last half of the film. Like you're watching two different movies. And yet, both halves are extremely well done. The movie seemed to have a difficulty deciding where it's voice was: "Am I a Marvel movie that fits like End Game or Infinity War into the grand scheme of the MCU, or am I a Sony movie that moves the story along in a self-contained fashion?" Neither are bad approaches separately, but together makes for a bit of a rollercoaster ride trying to keep pace with each other.

I have to give applause to Zendaya, Alfred Molina and Willem Dafoe. Their performances were no less than excellent. Alfred coming back to Dr. Octopus 17-years later, seemed to not miss a beat. He felt the same as if I was watching a continuation of Spiderman 2. And Willem, wow, Willem. That Goblin laugh was intense. The Goblin was alive and well. Zendaya's performance was brilliant. She has so many emotionally filled scenes and she hit every one of them, as expected from this amazing actress.

Image by Screenrant.com

Although there were easily chances missed, I still drooled over all the Easter eggs found throughout the film. As in true MCU form, there are obvious hints to the larger story, and yet, really doesn't tell you much about it at all. The chances missed in my opinion were smaller and just not consequential to the movie, so in essence, yes, I knew they were missed, but the average watcher wouldn't.

Image by CNET.com

This movie is really tough to talk about without giving spoilers. Don't be surprised if you also see a spoiler version of my review because there are simply so many things I would love to talk about good and bad, but can't. This was easily the best movie I've seen in 2021 so far. If you can get a ticket and have the time, see it in the theatre. I'm not sure you would get the same feeling at home. It was almost magically watching it in a full theatre again. It reminded me of how going to the theatre used to be pre-COVID. So well done.


Overall score: 8.5 out of 10 stars. I will reserve my Pros and Cons section for the spoiler-filled review.
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